Hannah Hecht's Blog

Across the past few weeks, we’ve read about a large variety of different topics. The topics themselves (calliagnosia, rhetoric, sports, fractals, and Kurt Vonnegut) were very eye-opening, but the thing that makes honors class interesting is the different viewpoints that people have during our weekly discussion. Our class consists of new freshman from a host of different backgrounds and situations, and that is what helps to make this class so much fun.

When I read the articles, there are certain things that I seemed to pick up on, while others went unnoticed. For example, in the first reading, I tended to focus on how calliagnosia would help to end discrimination based on looks. I thought that it would be a great idea, another way to make sure that all men (and women) would truly be created equal. The class discussion opened my eyes to other opinions. Many other members of the class saw calliagnosia as a threat to beauty everywhere. They helped me to see the true cons of a hypothetical world of calliagnostics.

Sometimes after a discussion I would change or revise my thoughts on a topic, but other times hearing the opposition to my opinion helped me to strengthen my beliefs. For example, when we discussed the issue of women in sports, discussing in class and reading other blogs helped reaffirm my opinion that women have not yet achieved full equality in American society.

In the end, honors class is all about perspective. The wide variety of viewpoints being presented in the Roadman Formal every Tuesday is analogous to the wide variety of people across campus and in life. This class is about much more than reading an article and writing about it; honors class teaches students how to effectively communicate their incredibly varied views in an increasingly diverse society.